A German designer has developed a video game that allows voters to take out their frustrations on politicians ahead of the country’s national election on Sept. 24.
Inspired by the popular Street Fighter Nintendo game, Bundes Fighter II Turbo pits leaders from Germany’s main parties against one another in a partisan battle to become chancellor.
Each leader is designed with their own special moves.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is seeking her fourth term in office, uses the “Kohl-Drop” in the game to finish her political opponents.
If the polls are correct, Merkel will not need any special moves to defeat her opponents at the ballot box as pre-election polls give her conservative Union bloc a lead of 13 to 17 points over the centre-left Social Democrats.
Other attack moves in the game include the “Schulzzug” used by the former European Parliament’s president Martin Schulz, who returned to German politics in January to lead the Social Democratic Party with a platform that centres on perceived economic injustices for Germany’s have-nots.
Meanwhile, the leftist Free Democratic Party leader Christian Lindner is using his youth, a new immigration law and a tough tone on eurozone strugglers to attack the polls, but relies on a “Selfie Stick Jab” in the game to undo his rivals.
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Players can also choose from Sahra Wagenknecht (National Committee of the Left Party), Alexander Gauland (Alternative für Deutschland) or the Green Party’s co-leaders Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Anton Hofreit.
Users can also choose from a host of campaign stop locations, including Chemnitz (known as Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953-1990), Dresden, Freiburg, Frankfurt and Berlin.
The game was developed by Funk, a website content creator that is jointly owned and operated by German public-service broadcasters ZDF and ARD.
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Gamers can play as their preferred candidate online or downloaded the game to play later.
Germans will head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether new leadership is needed after 12 years of Angela Merkel.
— With files from the Associated Press
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